The Effect of Personnel Shortage on Nursing, Staff, and Patient Education

The Effect of Personnel Shortage on Nursing, Staff, and Patient Education
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The Effect of Personnel Shortage on Nursing, Staff, and Patient Education
A shortage of nursing personnel is being experienced in both the developed and the developing world. The nursing shortage is a situation that occurs when the demand for nursing professionals exceeds the supply. Nursing shortage can be measured using nurse-to-population ratio, nurse-to-patient ration, as well as using the number of job openings. The problem has not always been caused by a low supply of trained nurses. In some instances, shortages occur in spite of high admission rates in nursing schools. This can be attributed to inadequate staffing ratios in the health institutions, inadequate placement programs for new nurses, as well as poor worker retention. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is a global shortage of 4.3 million nurses and other healthcare workers caused by historical underinvestment in education and training of the health workers, poor wages, as well as unconducive working environments. This paper seeks to discuss the effect of the nursing shortage at the workplace and come up with strategies that can help address the issue.
Causes of the Shortage
Before delving into the impact of the shortage, it is important to look at the causes of the shortage. Multifaceted factors cause the problem. As a result of faculty shortages, thousands of potential students are turned away, and hence the number of new nurses goes down. For instance, more than 70,000 qualified applicants were turned away in 2012 due to faculty shortage, insufficient classroom space, clinical sites, clinical preceptors, as well as general financial constraints (SCHUMACHER CLINICAL PARTNERS, 2016). The move happened in the backdrop of increasing population in some states. Moreover, a high number of nurses are either retiring or nearing the retirement age that will, therefore, increase the pressure on nurses. As more pressure is heaped on nurses, the working conditions get worse and the rate of turnover increases (Nantsupawat, et al., 2017). The outcome aggravates the problem. The situation is expected to get worse in the coming years due to some reasons. One, the baby boomers are getting aged, and hence the demand for nurses will rise further. Secondly, the health reforms that have been carried out in the recent years will lead to increased access to health care hence placing more pressure on the nurses.
Effects of Nurse Shortage
Owing to the personnel shortage, nurses have to work under stressful conditions for long hours that leads to fatigue, injury, as well as general job dissatisfaction. Numerous reports have shown that the existing nurses are struggling to deal with the higher demand (Hochlaf, 2018). Patient overcrowding in the emergency rooms is becoming a common occurrence increasing the number of evaluations that nurses have to carry out and piling more pressure on them. The nurses have to cover shifts and work overtime to attend to all the patients that lead to both physical and emotional burnout. Nurses end up with little time for themselves and are also immensely stressed at the workplace. Nurses work...